Automatic faucet opening attachment



May 19, 1931; v. BLHAiG AUTOMATIC FAUCET OPENING ATTACHMENT Filed Sept. 4, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR., v .wy y

W ATTORNEYS May 19, 1931. v. B. HAIG 1,805,821

AUTOMATIC FAUCET OPENING ATTACHMENT Filed Sept. 4, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR;

A TTOR/VE Y5 Patented ma is, 1931" is rare orries VIRGIL n. HAIG, or Los enemas, CALIFORNIA'I AUTOMATIC nausea ornnine ATTACHMENT Application filed September considerable number of standard makes and designs now on the market. The invention is g particularly intended for use in connection with push button faucets, such as are commonly provided on water coolers or water filters, but it will be understood that it may also be used in connection with any automatic push button type faucet. r r

The object of the invention is to provide a faucet opening attachment which may be applied to a faucet of this type and which eliminates the necessity of exerting pressure of the finger or thumb upon the push button for the purpose of drawing off water, by making the opening of the faucet dependent upon movement of a glass or other receptacle into position beneath the faucet.

The attachment of my invention comprises essentially supporting means adapted to be secured to the faucet structure, suitable lever means pivoted on said supporting means, and having a suitable shaped portion or member constituting thrust-receiving means extending beneath the faucet in position to beengaged by and receive an inward thrust from a glass or other receptacle brought into position beneath thewater outlet opens ing ofthe faucet, an actuating means adapted to engage the push button to press the same inwardly, andmeans operatively connecting said actuating means to said lever means, said lever means being so arranged that t 1e inward pressure of' the glass or other receptacle-on the thrust-receiving means there of in such movement causes the actuating memberto exert the required inward pressure upon the push button to open the faucet.

Any suitable means may be employed for securing the supporting means to the faucet structure or housing, and considerable variation in design of the lever means is possible without departing from this invention. Furthermore, the attachment may be adjustable so as to'adapt it to use with different sized. faucets or faucets of'diiferent proportions,

4,1928. Serial no. 303,887.

or it maybe made non-adjustable for use with only a single size and design of faucet.

The construction and arrangement of the lever means and the actuating member thereof is'preferably such that the same may be swung up out of operative position and into an out-of-the-way position if desired, there by allowing the use of the faucet in the ordinary way. I

I have found by actual experience that one of the main objections to the. use of the automatic push button type faucet is the physical exertion required in holding the pressure of the thumb or finger on the push button when a large amount of Water is to beldrawn off,

for example in filling athermos bottle,pitch-c er or cooking vessel. Thisise'specially no: ticeable with aged people or small children. An object of this invention is to greatly re duce'the' physical exertion required to open and hold open a faucetof thistype, I am aware that-devices have already been developed and are now inuse for opening faucets by inward pressure of a-drinking glassor other receptacle when brought into position beneath the faucet, but all the devices thus, far invented to my knowledge, the faucet opening means have been built into and made an operative part of the faucet structure, requiring special castings, fittings and other parts and thereby makingthe cost prohibitive for use in the average home, as in con nection with water coolers. Forthis reason 7 the use of such. devices has been limited and has never been very wide spread on account of the excessive cost. Further-niord'the devices heretofore proposedhave been of complicated constructionandpnot"adapted to universal use. still further objection to these de-f vices heretofore used is that none of them permit the operating lever means to be moved when desired to an out of-the-wa'y' position as above described.

Aparticularly important advantage of my invention'is that it may be applied to an automatic push button type faucet already. in thepossession of the user and thus give him the advantages of maximum ease o'foperation of the faucet with a minimum ex penditurefor additional parts;

The accompanying drawings illustrate embodiments of my invention and referring thereto:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of one form of faucet opening attachments applied to the faucet of a water cooler.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section showing the means of securing the attachment to the faucet.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section on line 83 in Fig. 1. Y

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a modifica tion in which the lever means are non-adj ustable.

Fig. 5 is a perspective View of another modification of the invention which is intended particularly for use with larger faucets requiring a relatively strong pressure for operation thereof.

The attachment shown in Fig. 1 comprises a supporting member 1 consisting of a flat metal bar bent in l. shape to form an up right arm 2 and a substantially horizontal forwardly extending arm 3. The upright arm 2 is provided with a. collar 4 adapted to fit over the inner end of the faucet stem and to be tightly secured in position between gas kets indicated at 5. The faucet indicated at 6 is shown as projecting through and secured in the side wall of a water storage device 7, which may be the water storage reservoir of a water cooler or water filter, by means of a nut 8 screwed on the inner end of said faucet and a flange 9 on the stem of the faucet, in the usual manner of such devices. The faucet is provided at its outer end with the usual plunger or push button 10 which is normally held outwardly by a spring within the faucet and which operates suitable valve means within the faucet to prevent outflow of water when in such position. Upon inward movement of said push button, however, said valve means are opened, permitting outflow of water through the usual downwardly projecting pipe 11. The above described construction of the faucet forms no essential part of this invention and may be of any suitable or well known type.

The forwardly extending. arm 3 of the supporting means is preferably twisted as shown at 12 so that the forward portion thereof lies in a substantially vertical plane. A suitably shaped lever member is pivotally mounted upon the forward portion of said arm, said lever member being formed for example as a yoke or U-shaped strap comprising two arms 12 which are. brought together at their upper ends as indicated at 13 to position alongside the arm 3 and are connected together at their lower ends by a transverse thrust-receiving member 14: extending beneath the faucet, said transverse member being preferably bowed or curved inwardly so as to conform roughly to the shape of a drinking glass-or other round receptacle.

Said lever member may be pivotally supported on arm 3 by means of pin or screw 16 extending through any one of a series of openings 17 in said arm and provided with retaining means such as nut 18. The screw 16 may thus be removed and inserted in any desired one of the openings 17 for the purpose of adjustment to fit different sized faucets.

an actuating means or cap 20 is secured to the forward end of link means consisting of two arms 21, which are bent inwardly and pivotally connected at their inner or rear ends to the arms 12 of the lever member intermediate the thrust-receiving member 14 and the pivot means 16 of the lever. The actuating means 20 may if desired be formed as a solid cap, but preferably comprises, as shown, a bar 25 extending across the end of the push button and a short section of metal tubing 22 projecting inwardly so as to fit und said push button. Actuating bar 25 arms 21 may be formed of a piece of wire uitable size which may be integrally secured to the tubular member 22 as by solderin or brazing at 26. The tubular member 22 is preferaly slotted outwardly from its inner end at one or more points, as indicated t 2?, so as to permit the same to expand sufnciently to slip over the end of the push but ton and to then contract and resiliently clamp around the same. The arms 21 may be bent inwardly at their inner ends to form pivot members adapted to be inserted in any one of a series of openings 2 1 in the respective lever arms 12 so as to permit adjustment of the height of the link arms 21 with respect to the lever arms 12. The arms 12 are preferably formed of resilient metal so that the same may be bent inwardly to a sufiicient extent to permit removal of the pivot members 23 and insertion thereof in any desired pair of openings 24-.

A modification of this invention is shown in Fig. a, the device being in this case nonadjustable and being intended for attachment toonly a certain size of faucet. The attachment comprises as before a supporting means 1 including an upright arm 2 adapted to be secured to the faucet in the same manner as before and a forwardly extendingarm 3. The lever means comprises in this case a yoke or U-shaped strap having two arms 12 connected together at their lower ends by an inwardly curved or bowed transverse thrust-receiving member 14, said arms being offset inwardly at their upper portions as indicated at 13 and being pivotally mounted upon the forward end of arm 3 by means of a pivot pin 16. The actuating means 20 may be substantially the same as above described, while the arms 21 for connecting the same to said lever means are shown in this case as being bent outwardly at their inner ends and engaging in a single ice pair of openings 24 in. the inwardly offset portions 13 of the respective arms of said lever means.

In the operation of either of the above described forms of the invention, the glass or other receptacle to be filled with water is moved inwardly against the thrustre'ceiving member 14 or 14 of the lever means, and a slight additional inward movement thereof requiring very little pressure, will move said lever means inwardly and cause the actuating means to press the push, button 10 inwardly and open the faucet.

It is evident that in both of the devices above described the effective lever arm, about pivot 16 or 16, of the force exerted by the drinking glass or other receptacle upon the thrust-receiving means of the lever is considerably greater than the effective lever arm of the force exerted by the actuating means upon the push button so that the force required to be exerted on said thrust-receiving means through said glass or other receptacle is correspondingly less than that required to operate the push button. It has been found by actual trial that with a ratio of said lever arms of say 2 to l or 3 to 1, a very small inward pressure of the receptacle is required; in fact, the force which may be exerted through a light paper clip is sufficient.

The lever means is so disposed that when the drinking glass or other receptacle is in engagement with the thrust-receiving means for effecting opening of the faucet as above described, said drinking glass or other receptacle will also be disposed directly beneath the faucet outlet 11. As soon as the desired amount of water has been obtained, the receptacle may be withdrawn, whereupon the faucet will automatically close itself in the usual manner and return the lever means to normal position.

The device shown in Fig. 5 is designed to give a compound lever action on the actuating means, whereby a given inward pressure of a receptacle against the thrust-receiving means of the lever will produce a greater inward thrust on the push button, this modification being particularly adapted to use with large faucets requiringthe greater force for operation thereof. The device comprises in this case a split collar consisting of upper and lower portions 30 and 31 respectively, adapted to be clamped around the faucet as by means of screws 35. The lower portion 31 is provided with downwardly projecting arms or lugs 32 on which are pivotally mounted, as by means of pivot screws 43, the upper ends of the respective arms 33 ofa primary lever, which is formed as a yoke including said arms 33 and an inwardly bowed or curvedtransverse thrust'receiving member 3% connecting the lower ends thereof.

The upper member 30 of the split collar is provided with upwardly projecting arms-or of the rods 41.

lugs. 36 on whichare pivotally mounted, as

bymeans of pivot screws 44, the central portions of lever members '37 which are formed as bell cranks. extends forwardly and is connected by link 39 to an intermediate point on the corresponding lever arm 33; The other arm 40' extends downwardly and is connected by rod ll to the actuating means 20 which may be, of the same construction as above described. The effective lever arm of the force applied to the thrust-receiving means 3t-is in this case considerably greater than that of links 39 about the pivots 43,,while the effective lever arm of links 39 about pivots 44 is greater than that structure, lever means pivotally mounted on said supporting means and provided with a thrust rece1v1ng member extending in position tobeengagedby, and to receive an.;1n-

I'" u ward thrust from, a receptacle brought into a position beneath the faucet outlet; actuating means in position to engage and exert 1nward pressure uponothe push button of the faucet; and link means connected at the forward end to said actuating means and pivotally connected atthe rear endto said lever means at a position intermediate the thrust receiving member and the axis of pivotal sup: port of the lever means.

' 2. An; automatic faucet opening attachment as set forth in claim 1, and comprising in addition means. permitting adjustment of the point of pivotal supportingof said lever means on said supporting means. 1

. 3. An automatic faucet opening attachment as set forth in claim 1, and comprising in addition'me'ans for adjusting the point of pivotal connection of said link means to said lever means.

One arm 38 of each bell crank Inward pressure against, the r member 34; wlll therefore cause an inward 4. An automatic faucet openingattachment for faucets of the push button type, comprising a fixed support adapted to be secured to the outside'of the faucet structure and including an arm extending above said faucet, lever means comprising a transverse tl'irust-receiving member disposedin position to'be engaged and forced inwardly by a receptacle brought into positionbeneath thefaucet Outlet and two arms extending upwardly from said transverse memberat the respective sides of said faucet, the upper portions of said lever arms being offset inwardly and being pivotally mounted on said supporting arm, actuating means adapted to fit over the end of the push button of the faucet, and link means connected to said actuating means and comprising two arms extending rearvxardly therefrom and pivotally connected to the respective lever arms intermediate the height of said lever.

5. An automatic faucet opening attachment as set forth in claim 4:, said arm of the lined supporting means being provided With a plurality of openings, and the arms of said lever means being pivotally mounted thereon by means of a pin adapted to be passed through any one of said openings, whereby the point of pivotal support of said lever means on said fixed support may be adjusted.

6. An automatic faucet opening attachment as set forth in claim 4, each of said arms of the lever being provided With a plurality of openings at different heights, and the means for pivotally connecting the arms of said link means to the respective lever arms bein adapted to engage in any pair of said openings so as to permit adjustment of the efi'ective lever arm of said link means about the axis of pivotal support of said lever means.

7. An automatic faucet opening attachment for faucets of the push button type, comprising supporting means including a portion adapted to embrace the outside of the casing of the faucet and to be removably clamped thereto, lever means pivotally mounted on said supporting means and hav ing thrust receiving means extending below the faucet in position to be engaged and forced inwardly by a receptacle brought in Wardly into position beneath the faucet outlet, actuating means adapted to engage the push button of the faucet-to force the same inwardly, and means operatively connecting said lever means to said actuating means and adapted to cause inward movement of said actuating means upon inward movement of said lever means.

In testimony Whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name this 23rd day of August,

' VIRGIL B. HAIG. 

